I wasn't really sure what to expect when I grabbed Olivia Atwater's Half a Soul to read. Sure, I had read the Amazon description, but still wasn't sure what I was getting myself in for.
It’s difficult to find a husband in Regency England when you’re a young lady with only half a soul.
Ever since a faerie cursed her, Theodora Ettings has had no sense of fear, embarrassment, or even happiness—a condition which makes her sadly prone to accidental scandal. Dora’s only goal for the London Season this year is to stay quiet and avoid upsetting her cousin’s chances at a husband… but when the Lord Sorcier of England learns of her condition, she finds herself drawn ever more deeply into the tumultuous concerns of magicians and faeries.
Lord Elias Wilder is handsome, strange, and utterly uncouth—but gossip says that he regularly performs three impossible things before breakfast, and he is willing to help Dora restore her missing half. If Dora’s reputation can survive both her ongoing curse and her sudden connection with the least-liked man in all of high society, then she may yet reclaim her normal place in the world… but the longer Dora spends with Elias Wilder, the more she begins to suspect that one may indeed fall in love, even with only half a soul.
What I got was a book full of characters that I instantly fell in love with (and a few that I, rightly so, instantly despised) ... and a 1am bedtime because I couldn't stop reading until I found out what was going to happen with all of them. From beginning to end I was pulled in as though a magic spell had been cast. My only complaint through the whole thing was the very last paragraph of the Epilogue. Partially because it meant that the book was over .... mostly because it somehow seemed to diminish one of the major themes of the story for me. And it was a beautiful theme of self-acceptance .... and that sometimes even curses don't need to be broken and the broken don't need to be fixed.
Still, I highly recommend this if you love love stories, faerie tales, Regency romps, spitfire heroines, broken heroes, and being kept up late because you just can't stop reading .... just stop before the last paragraph.
If you want to share whatever has kept you up past your bedtime because you just needed one more chapter ... or the entire book ... please comment! My TBR pile is already toppling, but I can always add more.
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